Third Son’s A Charm by Shana Galen

Third Son’s a Charm by Shana Galen

My rating 🍸🍸🍸

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Blurb

Ewan Mostyn thinks a job as a duke’s daughter’s bodyguard will be easy—but Lady Lorraine has a few tricks up her sleeve that spark an undeniable passion

Fiercely loyal to his friends and comrades, Ewan Mostyn is the toughest in a group of younger sons of nobility who met as soldiers and are now trying desperately to settle back into peaceful Society. Ewan trusts his brawn more than his brains, but when he’s offered a job watching the Duke of Ridlington’s stubbornly independent daughter, he finds both are challenged.

Lady Lorraine wants none of her father’s high-handed ways, and she’ll do everything in her power to avoid her distressingly attractive bodyguard—until she lands herself in real trouble. Lorraine begins to see Ewan’s protectiveness in a new light, and she can only hope that her stoic guardian will do for her what he’s always done—fight for what he wants.

Review

There was a lot to like about Third Son’s A Charm. My overall impression of the book was that it was a nice, light read with just enough angst to keep my teeth from rotting. The characters were all distinct, especially Ewan’s friends, and Galen’s prose makes it easy to slip into the setting.

I found myself liking Ewan. He has a few moments of misogyny over and above what I’d expect for the period[1]. That said, he’s certainly distinct from the heroes I usually read about. I appreciated his disdain for all of the frippery of high society – dancing, chitchat, and cravats. I also appreciated seeing a character with a learning disability portrayed in a sensitive way, particularly in a historical romance.

Ewan’s friends were likewise interesting. I’m looking forward to picking up the rest of the series to learn more about them. I understand Ewan’s commanding officer is a fan of gin, which is pretty much always the way to my heart.

I was much less a fan of Lorraine, the heroine. Lorraine is a nincompoop. Her one redeeming characteristic is that she’s legitimately attached to her little yap dog. She’s a complete incompetent when it comes to taking care of her little yap dog, but she sincerely loves him, and as a dog person myself I guess I like that.

Otherwise, I have no use for her. The only reason I can believe she’s older than thirteen is because she mentions she’ll reach “my majority” in a year, the age of majority being twenty-one. I understand she’s very sheltered, but she’s not so sheltered she doesn’t know exactly what she wants from her partner in a sexual sense. There’s really no excuse for her to be such a ninny.

Unfortunately, Lorraine’s deficiencies made it difficult for me to fully enjoy the book. I just couldn’t understand why someone like Ewan, who is smart and has been all over and done so many things, would be at all attracted to someone with a black hole between her ears. There are other plot points that are spoilery, so I won’t share them, but all in all I just have a lot of trouble buying the idea that Ewan would want anything to do with Lorraine.

That said, there is plenty of action, a dose of adventure, a completely untrained and unrepentant little dog, and a deeply touching side plot involving an older couple that truly warmed my heart. Third Son’s A Charm is definitely worth picking up. Just imagine yourself poking Lorraine with a stick every time she says/does something mindless – kind of like the governess she still clearly needs would.

[1] Also, even though it’s a book written about the Regency era, it wasn’t written in the Regency era, so we could maybe leave the casual disrespect and distaste for women back where it belongs along with Yellow Fever epidemics?